The Link Between High-Impact Practices and College Success Among International Students in the US

To promote learning and academic success among undergraduates, many colleges and universities offer or require students to participate in high-impact practices, which include first-year seminars, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, service-learning, diversity/global learning, internships, and capstone projects. However, the research findings on the effectiveness of these practices for promoting academic achievement and retention is mixed. Moreover, few studies have examined the link between these practices and student outcomes among international students, and there is reason to believe that international students may face challenges with fully engaging and benefitting from these experiences. The present study explored the relationships between nine high-impact practices and three student success outcomes: college grades, sense of belonging in college, and satisfaction with the overall college experience. Within a sample of 5,800 international students at 15 universities, participation in high-impact practices was occasionally associated with favorable student success outcomes, particularly for academic diversity experiences. However, all of these relationships were modest in size, more than three quarters of the results were nonsignificant, and service-learning was significantly and negatively related to college grades. The findings were highly consistent across student demographics and postsecondary institutions.